Mothers shouldn't feel guilty about breast-feeding

Posted: Sunday, March 11, 2001

Two years ago, the Georgia General Assembly made a good first step toward respecting and legalizing a woman's decision to breast-feed her baby. The legislature passed a law allowing public breast-feeding if the mother ''acts in a discreet and modest way.''

Before the 1999 law, a woman breast-feeding her baby in public could be charged with public indecency regardless of whether she was using discretion. First-time offenders could be found guilty of a misdemeanor and face up to a year in jail and a fine of up to $1,000.

The Senate and the House have approved a measure this year that modifies the 1999 law by removing the ''discreet and modest'' language. The change means that a woman cannot be asked to leave a public area specifically for breast-feeding her child.

Breast-feeding advocates wanted the change because some women might still be worried that they couldn't be modest or discreet enough to breast-feed in public without risking arrest.

''No matter how hard you try as a nursing mother to cover yourself while feeding the baby, you ultimately don't have control over a wiggly, squiggly baby,'' said Rep. Sally Harrell, D-Atlanta, the bill's sponsor. ''I lived in fear that somebody would accuse me of not being discreet.''

We support this amendment to the 1999 breast-feeding law. The ''discreet and modest'' concept is completely subjective and it only succeeds in stigmatizing a nursing mother as a person who is doing something wrong. Everyone has their own idea of what constitutes discreet or modest behavior. Do we really want the state law to specify how much breast tissue can be showing when a women is feeding her baby or to what lengths a woman needs to hide the fact that she is breast-feeding?

It's a shame that our state government has to legislate a woman's right to feed her child in a most natural way. It's unfair to expect a nursing mother to stay locked away at home with her baby out of fear that she might get in trouble for feeding her baby in public. Scientific research has demonstrated that breast-feeding is the healthier option for a baby and we should be freeing women to choose this method of feeding their babies if they so choose.

This article published in the Athens Daily News on Sunday, March 11, 2001.